Kyed: Patriots’ latest win shuts up talk of easy schedule, raises 2025 ceiling

TAMPA Fla It s not the schedule The Patriots established a lot in Sunday s nail-biting toe-tapping heart-stopping sweat-beading - win over the Buccaneers But most of of all they proved that their - record and seven-game winning streak is not just a product of their ease of schedule Patriots players stated after Sunday s win that they don t care if they re being slept on but their performance did the talking for them on Sunday And their play on the field beating a division leader communicated any doubters to shut up about their easy schedule Related Articles Best and worst What we learned from Patriots - win over Buccaneers Patriots running back ruled out of Bucs competition with knee injury Patriots pay tribute to Paul Tagliabue after former NFL commissioner s death Patriots-Buccaneers inactives Will Kyle Williams step up in Kayshon Boutte s absence Patriots add running back three-time Super Bowl champ to working roster Who knows how long the Patriots streak will last they have a string of three easy games coming up against the Jets Bengals and Giants before the bye and the league s easiest remaining schedule but they ve now bookended their consecutive victories with signature wins over the Bills and Buccaneers A win over the now - Buccaneers on the road in sweltering elements makes you wonder how high the ceiling for the Patriots really is The playoffs seemed unthinkable when this club was being assembled in March But now This looks like a unit that won t just make the playoffs but could be actual contenders in January Right now this is a company that no unit in the NFL will want to face after proving they can beat two of the NFL s best teams in their home stadiums The Patriots would have deserved enough credit for just winning against teams they were supposed to beat this season They finished - in consecutive years and lost to plenty of the league s bottom feeders Beating a squad like the Titans or Browns was still hard for thissquad in their previous three seasons Winning fair and square matchups against division leaders like the Buccaneers was unthinkable laughable even The Patriots ability to play through adversity raises expectations as well They were down three starters in Sunday s win over the Buccaneers and needed their backups to step up Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson replaced Rhamondre Stevenson by producing three explosive runs including - and -yard touchdowns on the way to a -yard breakout performance Rookie wide receiver Kyle Williams stepped up in place of Kayshon Boutte with his own explosive play a -yard catch and run for a touchdowns And linebacker Jack Gibbens led the company in tackle while starting in place of Christian Elliss The performances from Henderson and Williams alone show that the roster has more playmakers than it appeared just one week ago The Patriots had trouble producing big plays after Boutte left their Week win over the Falcons In a tournament that saw Drake Maye struggle multiple times they still produced five explosive plays as DeMario Douglas and Mack Hollins also made plays downfield With the heat and a slew of minor injuries head coach Mike Vrabel quipped that he was getting tired walking onto the field to check on guys the Patriots played players on offense and players on defense Defensive tackle fullback Khyiris Tonga even played both options with snaps on defense and another eight on offense Says a lot about our unit safety Jaylinn Hawkins commented Says a lot about everybody as a whole We need everybody Doesn t matter if you re a starter second string third string everybody gonna get a shot The gang also overcame a near-disastrous decision by Maye to throw the ball into danger on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers -yard line when a field goal which would have given the Patriots an eight-point lead could have produced a much cleaner win But the Patriots defense stepped up and forced a turnover on downs when the Buccaneers needing a touchdown while trailing - with left in the challenge went for it on fourth-and- from the Patriots -yard line The Patriots pass rush was in the midst of dragging Mayfield down when he stood up and tossed the ball to running back Rachaad White Hawkins thought Mayfield was down but still had the wherewithal to bring White down for a game-saving tackle Henderson s -yard touchdown run two plays later clinched the meeting The Patriots allowed a touchdown to cut their lead to - but wide receiver Stefon Diggs recovered onside kick officially put the encounter away The Patriots also proved they could win despite it not being Maye s best performance He finished with a positive EPA expected points added but had an erratic performance for his standards passing the ball Maye finished just -of- for yards with two touchdowns and one interception He had a negative completion percentage over expected and was just -of- on deep balls I think we just got a good group of guys that play together rookie left tackle Will Campbell noted Nobody wants to let anybody down Offense has the defense s back Defense has the offense s back and special teams has everybody We just got a good group of guys and everybody plays together and everybody s trying to work together to get the win And that really helps It doesn t really matter who s out there It s fair to say that despite chosen high-quality players like Maye cornerback Christian Gonzalez and wide receiver Stefon Diggs to name a sparse the Patriots do not have one of the the majority talented rosters in the NFL Even with an easy schedule the Patriots were expected to finish somewhere around this season With eight wins under their belt they re a win away from beating their preseason win total They ve matched their win total from the past two seasons combined in just games Maye is having an MVP-caliber season and Vrabel might as well start cleaing his shelves for another NFL Coach of the Year award So what s different about this band What allows them to keep their winning streak alive through what Vrabel commented bordered on a bad decision from Maye through injuries through heat through an opposing quarterback that wouldn t go down Brotherhood right tackle Morgan Moses announced We re close There s no cliques in here of offense and defense We talk expletive to the defense just like the defense talks expletive to us And when you are able to do that and not take it with a grain of salt it allows you to be better It allows you to be better every day and that s what we ve done It s just preaching the identity the core values that we have on this band We do everything together When you go out there into somebody else s stadium or in our stadium and you got brotherhood and you can play together you re stronger together than just just on -on- s It still feels too early to talk about the possibility of a Super Bowl And setting the bar that high could impact the overall enjoyment of this season The Patriots are winners again It s not their schedule It s not even their talent It s a close association with a head coach who s preaching the right values and it s allowing the Patriots to stay in every single challenge And they haven t stopped winning for seven weeks now